


The Past Touch Them

by Reuben Southworth (wingblade)



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Character Study, Ficlet, Gen, Incest, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-17
Updated: 2013-06-17
Packaged: 2017-12-15 06:50:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/846576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingblade/pseuds/Reuben%20Southworth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dante contemplates Nero’s origins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Past Touch Them

**Author's Note:**

> Re-posted from Tumblr (July 1st, 2010)

That second-to-last battle was one of the most frightening moments of Vergil’s life, the way their sick, blob of an enemy grabbed his twin. And the moan that left his mouth, it caused more than just a few different reactions to course through the blue-cloaked teen’s body.

But Dante was safe. It was okay. Since when did Vergil care so much about Dante’s safety, especially since it was he himself who often put his younger twin into such compromising situations? Was it because Vergil just…knew that his brother would survive effortlessly each time?

The last fight, Dante reaching out towards him as he pushed his own body over the cliff and to the depths below; the look on his twin’s face: pure agony? Agony at losing a…loved one? At regretting so many things, like him not being able to spend time with his twin, like other families oh-so-graciously had the privilege of? Did Dante…regret? Did Dante love?

Vergil couldn’t close his eyes; couldn’t close his eyes to the now obvious truth.

* * *

That scar on Dante’s hand wouldn’t be healing any time soon. And it hasn’t. Even now, after all the drama in Fortuna, it holds a certain glow, rivaling even the most daunting of wounds. It’s always covered with a glove, too; Dante isn’t sure he’d feel comfortable sharing that with anyone else, and if someone did see it, they’d most likely have a negative reaction, wouldn’t they? Something like, “Dante, you should really get that checked out,” and, “You’re a half-demon, aren’t you? What kind of lame excuse is keeping that from healing up, old man?”

In truth, Dante’s never let it heal; each time he feels the cells of his skin morphing and etching together to become whole again, he just grabs good ol’ Rebellion and slices. Just once. And it’s sadly, oddly, come to feel good, keeping his brother alive in this way.

Everyone thinks Vergil’s dead, especially after the Mundus episode, and, while Dante is probably the biggest inner-critic of it all, he can’t help but fantasize of his brother’s survival.

In his dreams, too. He never truly knew at first his brother’s presence, but his mind built upon his dreams like violent, affectionate building blocks, pieces and pixels of his twin being placed atop each other each time he’d snooze.

And soon, it was whole. He didn’t touch the formation he had created of his brother; more like watched, and not even truly observing. He just watched. For the sake of watching.

But Nero was in Dante’s life now, ever since that damn Fortuna incident. Dante couldn’t just push the kid out to save his life, or anyone’s, and the kid did bear a certain resemblance to his long-lost brother. He had tried to convince himself that it was just that damn arm, but it was too coincidental, all of it; the kid just seemed to hold the air, the very breath, of his twin. Was it because of this that Dante craved his presence? Saved his ass countless times now, over and over? Dante was being selfish, wasn’t he?

 _Fuck_.

More pizza and more beer and more sleazy magazines is what he needs right now. And not all too sleazy, as people would notice if they even took the time to bother to look at them. Dante liked his sleaze, don’t get him wrong; he just had bigger fish to fry, and it was hard to look at nude, posed women with all on his mind.

 _Vergil_.

_Nero._

_Fuck._

What’s a middle-aged half-demon supposed to do when he dreams of his brother at night and daydreams during the day, and has somewhat of an incarnation of his brother on that little island of Fortuna?

What would _you_ do?

_Eat more pizza and drink more beer._

_Leave the dramatic bullshit for another day._

* * *

When Nero visits Dante one day, Dante can’t help but offer him a place to stay. A shocked Nero is the reaction he gets, probably seeing as Nero had entered the establishment of Devil May Cry with insults spewing out of his mouth like the plague swarming on rats.

Nero asks why in all the fiery pits of the Demon World Dante would want a “kid” like him to be staying with him, helping him with work. And Dante can’t mouth the words exactly, but he smirks, and his reason is obvious, even if only to him: “Well, you’re a lot like my brother. And you’re a pretty cute kid, besides the fact.”

Nero stayed and Dante was ending up wondering how the hell he got himself into such a situation.

And with each passing day, Dante wondered more and more…

” _Could this kid possibly be… Vergil’s son_?”


End file.
